Yukio Hatoyama’s Money Woes Take a Turn for the Worse

DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama’s issues with regard to his political finances management organization (PFMO) keep getting weirder. When he addressed the issue publicly on 2 July after completing an internal investigation employing a team of lawyers, he was left to guessing why the aide had used the names of unsuspecting acquaintances, some of them dead, to disguise illegal transfers from Hatoyama’s private account by recording them as donations from individuals in reports filed with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in compliance with legal requirements and available to the general public on the Internet*. I had been wondering why he or the team of lawyers hadn’t bothered to ask when, a week later, the saga took another turn as it was revealed that Hatoyama’s PFMO had sought and obtained from MIAC certificates that would enable a large number of these same unsuspecting individuals to claim tax credits for their donations. Now, at least some of these individuals—the ones who were alive at the time we assume—are claiming that yes, they had made those donations after all.

The best case scenario for the Hatoyama camp is that the “investigation” was so shoddy that the lawyers struck out a large number of individual donors without bothering to ask them if they had actually made those donations or not. The worst case scenario is that the aide obtained permission to use the names of Hatoyama acquaintances, and took the necessary measures to give them tax benefits as a quid pro quo, but forgot about that when he gave evidence during the internal investigation. In any case, like so many other “internal” investigations during institutional crises, it appears that the Hatoyama camp has avoided the kind of thorough process that uncovers questions that it would avoid if it only could. Except it couldn’t—wishing rarely makes things come true—and the result is a stream of embarrassing and often illegal revelations that could wind up destroying Hatoyama’s bid for the Prime Minister’s chair.

I think that attention will soon turn to what Hatoyama knew and when. He needs to explain himself, and do so soon, or he will be obliged to leave.

* It amazes me that the LDP and DPJ have not been using the information on the MIAC website to better political advantage. Is this a Japanese politics version of the MAD doctrine? But shouldn’t at least the JCP and Socialists be doing something about this?

More on LDP-DPJ Collaboration, re Political Financing Reporting Requirements

When I wrote this post, I stupidly forgot (BWI, likely) about the legislative proposals to tighten political financing reporting requirements. Here, the two sides are working furiously not to look bad in the public eye, which means that they have to come up with a compromise. The LDP does not want total disclosure, the more presentable excuse being that it would be too costly and time-consuming. I'm surprised that no one on the DPJ side appears to be making the point that, in reporting, all the receipts and accounting books could simply be digitally photographed (if not already available in some digital format), posted on a secure site, and made available for anyone to download. The original documents can be referenced when there is doubt.

Note that the agreement in principle to report every expenditure item down to the last yen follows Ichiro Ozawa's original proposal, which the DPJ itself had vetoed back then.

If Anyone Can Prolong the Honeymoon with the Media, It's Prime Minister Fukuda

I did not make it up when I wrote that "[Mr. Fukuda] had charmed the entire Kantei press into longing for his triumphant return." In fact, a member of the Asahi board of editorial writers said it on Sunday Project. So I am not surprised to see that the Prime Minister's multiple political financing embarrassments are not causing him much trouble. Likewise, the financial irregularities in, for example, Environment Minister Kamoshita's books provided a few headlines, but nothing more. Think of it, if Mr. Fukuda had been an Abe clone, he would have been inundated with "more-of-the-same" invectives by now, and never mind the legal distinctions between the intentional and the negligent. Of course the media would be obliged to maintain balance with these and other Ozawa money stories (it could be just a coincidence that this story does not appear on the Asahi website), and it remains to be seen if they are just sick and tired of flogging this same horse over and over again.

In any case, Mr. Fukuda is liked - by the media and the public alike - and likeable, so this may be as good a time as any for the media, as they do here and here, to let the Japanese people know something that they've been aware of for a long, long time: that is, short of regime change, North Korea is not going to give Japan any more meaningful information on the abductees issue, let alone 1) let all abductees come home; 2) give a full, satisfactory accounting of the abductees issue (for example, how did they die, if they did), and 3) hand over the culprits; and have the Fukuda administration deal with the consequences.

Now imagine the embarrassment if the Abe administration had to deal with the revelation, and the only answer it had was that it had not heard such a thing directly from the North Koreans. Wouldn't the media be saying that Mr. Abe should ask Mr. Roh what Mr. Kim actually said? But I'll be mildly surprised if the mainstream media put that same question to Mr. Fukuda.

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I found this while I was looking for my posts on the relationship between the media and Prime Ministers. I think that it has stood the test of time pretty well, including the time horizon for Mr. Abe.

The MAFF Minister Un-Answers Questions: or, Reviving the Political Financing Scandal

In his first post-Geneva press briefing (by custom, all ministers give press briefing after the twice-weekly Cabinet meetings and are often forced to answer questions well outside their portfolio), MAFF Minister Norihiko Akagi stonewalled the press on disclosure of his political expenditures, stating that "it is important to treat the matter according to the law". The tabloids continued to eat him up (including two large mysterious patches of gauze showing up on his cheek and forehead), but Yomiuri buried it in page 33, the East Siberia of national news. (Example: Mainichi Reporter Charged with Assisting DUI… in case you need to know.)

So the Yomiuri has decided that this is yesterday's news. Indeed, the Akagi case is more of the same, and come to think of it, there's plenty of material out there on the election alone without rehashing all the issues all over again. Then there's earthquake, and the leaks at the nuclear power station…

Speaking of the earthquake, I did not have any problems with the Abe administration trying to make political capital out of the matter. Did you? You can't have your party leader doing a Putin (remember the Russian submarine going down while President Putin was taking a vacation?) and having the media all over you, so you might as well go the whole hog. (The Communist Party started a donation campaign (collecting money to send to the earthquake victims) in front of our local train station.) I did think it was a little tacky to claim that the prime minister was showing courage when he went in there despite the danger of aftershocks. It also did not do them any good to be seeing carping openly about a 12-hour delay before the report of the nuclear leak reached Cabinet headquarters. As if that were the main concern. Which it was, for the political people dealing with the media. Still.

Now there is one way to bring the political financing scandal back onto center stage. The DPJ can announce that, regardless of the new 50000 Yen per item disclosure threshold, it will disclose its finances to the DPJ proposal 10000 Yen limit. And it will do so retroactively, say, five years? Spring it on the DPJ one week before the vote, and you could have badly needed mo to put yourself over the top. Why not, you were willing to do it anyway, right? Just make sure Ichiro Ozawa doesn't spoil things by repeating his claim that he wanted disclosure down to the last Yen but the party wouldn't go along with it.

So, if you see that happening, remember, you read it here first.